[HAM] Hammond oil/clock oil

[organtec]

Actually the PR series had the necklace reverb, not the oil unit. The
necklace units were the first dry reverb units. They were fine. The
senseitivity problem was very minimal IF the cabinet had a solid floor under
it, free from vibration. It was replaced with the tank unit because the tank
unit had taught springs and would fit in a briefcase to display at shows,
plus production costs were less. I rebuild the necklaces all the time , they
still have the best sound. Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: hammond-bounces at zeni.net [mailto:hammond-bounces at zeni.net]On
Behalf Of Doug Irvine
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 4:25 PM
To: hammond at zeni.net
Subject: Re: [HAM] Hammond oil/clock oil


To those who were interested: I have rebuilt a number of Hammond clocks,
and currently have one I am working on. The oil for the enclosed
synchronous motor, which runs these clocks,  Hammond oil, which as one
of you mentioned is turbine oil, not whale oil. This oil was used in the
clock motors, Hammond generators, and the "wet" reverb tanks in the old
Hammond tone cabinets, HR, PR, cabinets. The oil was still being used
until the dry spring reverb units came on the scene, which was about the
same time that I became involved with selling Hammond organs, in 1957. I
know that we still had HR 40 cabinets with wet reverb tanks at that
time, however the dry reberb spring units slowly replaced them. These
were made by Gibbs Manufacturing Company, which was a Hammond
subsidiary. And the first ones of those were the necklace type, a proper
pain in the butt as the slightest movement, or even heavy bass sound
vibrations would make them rattle. They were fine in a home, sitting on
a carpet. Sometimes! Hammond had a lot of these units and installed them
in A-100 series consoles, until, thankfully, they finally ran out of
them and were forced to use the enclosed tank type. Getting back to the
Hammond clocks, any good oil, such as Singer sewing machine oil will
work fine in the clock mechanism, however for re-filling the little
motor, Hammond oil is best, or the Telespout All Purpose turbine oil
which is available at hardware stores in the US and Home Hardware in
Canada. This can be accomplished by finding the solder point on the side
of the motor case, using a solder iron to remove the solder plug,
ensuring the solder does NOT get in the case, re-filling the case with
oil using a hypodermic needle, and re-sealing the case with new solder,
once again ensuring that no solder gets into the case. This is a picky
job, but it can be done, and if I can do it still at 80+ then any of you
youngsters out there should be able to :-D !  My clocks are all from the
late 20s, early 30s, and I have yet to not get one running. They will
run forever as long as the power is not interrupted, and if it is, the
clock must be re-started.Hope this helps, if you wish any more info,
email me.  Cheers, Doug in BC
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